Tex

I am a native Texan. I grew up with the movies and TV shows set in the old west. But those fictions did not depict the life I lived. Yes, there were farms, cows and horses but they were shrinking in number as Houston continued to expand and swallow my small town of Alief. 

While attending college in Boston I was immediately referred to as Tex by everyone. They asked about my horse, my ranch and what it was like living in the desert. Film and television shaped their reality. Very few knew my real name. I became part of the myth. 

Years later, we moved to a small town in Lavaca County, where there are more cows than people. Here the cowboy is alive and well and thriving. I live in this world, along with the mythology of the cowboy and of Texas. I am both apart and part of it.